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Dhyana Mulam Guru Mutri

A spiritual discourse on the foundations of meditation and the nature of reality.

"In our Kriyānuṣṭhāna, you have various techniques for concentration and the purification of specific chakras, one after the other."

"Therefore, 'dhyāna mūlaṁ guru mūrti'—the roots, the essence, or the success of your meditation is guru mūrti, focusing on the divine form of your Gurudev."

Swami Avatarpuri explains the prerequisites for successful meditation, emphasizing the need for a steady body and a clear, single-pointed aim, such as the form of the Guru. He discusses the non-transactional nature of grace (kṛpā) and liberation (mokṣa), which requires practice (abhyāsa) and dispassion (vairāgya). The talk concludes with an exploration of the changing, relative nature of the world (Jagat) versus the unchanging reality of Brahman.

Recording location: Czech Republic, Strilky, Summer seminar

In yoga practice, especially during prāṇāyāma when we employ our ajapa mantra, all the pollution within our mind or subconscious can be deleted, finished, and cleaned up. In our Kriyānuṣṭhāna, you have various techniques for concentration and the purification of specific chakras, one after the other. Then you have chakra śodhana, encompassing all eight chakras, which helps you to become relaxed. However, if you have too many vṛttis (mental fluctuations), or if you have not prepared yourself adequately for this Kriyānuṣṭhāna, then you are constantly preoccupied with your ankle joints, knees, and hip joints. What do I mean by this? It is painful. Every five minutes you move your legs, you sit like this, then like that. That is not meditation, nor is it chakra śodhana. There is no śodhana (purification) at all; there is only you torturing yourself. Kāya (the body) is theory. I have given you an example many times: there is a glass full of water, with about 3 cm empty at the top. The glass sits on a very stable table, motionless. The liquid within the glass is also motionless. As soon as I take the glass in my hand, the glass moves, and consequently the liquid moves. Symbolically, this glass is our body, and our mind is that liquid. If you feel physical discomfort, then your mind is not steady. You constantly think about moving your body. Before you even move the body, the mind is already agitated with vṛttis. There are so many vṛttis that you cannot see through. We have another good example: a glass of water. You have a television and you turn it on, but there is no signal. Then you see many, many stars (static) on the screen. There is no signal, nothing. That is exactly how your citta (consciousness) is—it is that screen of the television. And all your vṛttis, all these propensities of saṃsāra, are these stars inside. You have no clear picture. Because you cannot sit comfortably, you cannot relax, you cannot be motionless, and you do not have a very, very clear aim. Therefore, it was asked: how to meditate? You must have some object, you must have some aim, you must have some destination, and then remain fixed on that. Thus, "dhyāna mūlaṁ guru mūrti"—the roots, the essence, or the success of your meditation is guru mūrti, focusing on the divine form of your Gurudev. It is not easy. Try for half a minute. Can you manage to imagine Mahāprabhujī for half a minute? If you can imagine Mahāprabhujī for half a minute without any other thoughts, I can tell you that you have achieved very great success or progress. None of you is capable of remaining on one object for half a minute. Suddenly, some other thought comes. I want to see only Mahāprabhujī, nothing else. When you say "nothing else," what do you mean? What is "nothing else"? So, "dhyāna mūlaṁ guru-mūrti, pūjā mūlaṁ guru-padam"—what to worship? The holy lotus feet of the master. "Mantra mūlaṁ guru-vākyaṁ"—the best mantra is to follow the guru's word (guru-vākya). "Mokṣa mūlaṁ guru-kṛpā"—then mokṣa (liberation), the realization, comes only through the grace (kṛpā) of the Gurudeva, through blessings. Blessing does not come through some kind of exchange or transaction. You cannot say, "Gurudeva, I'm so busy, and I give 20 million Hungarian forints. Please give me mokṣa," or "I will sit here for 24 hours. Okay, you will give me mokṣa." The master will know there is something wrong. Or you come with someone, a close disciple of Swāmījī, with the Hṛdayakamal, saying, "Hṛdayakamal, please, can you tell Swāmījī to give me the kṛpā so that I attain mokṣa?" She may come and say, "This is my best student, please can you give a blessing for Mokṣa?" As a courtesy towards Hṛdayakamalā, I might bless you that sometimes you will get Mokṣa. So Mokṣa, liberation, Ātma Jñāna (Self-knowledge), is not a matter of exchange or transactional practice. Therefore, Patañjali said: "abhyāsa" and "vairāgya." You must practice abhyāsa (practice, practice, practice) and you must practice vairāgya (dispassion). He tells two things: abhyāsa means daily practice, and our practice will only be successful if you have vairāgya. Ādi Guru Śaṅkarācārya speaks about vairāgya. From this planet up to Brahmaloka, all these things which you think you can enjoy, all these material things, should be for you like dirt. That state is pure vairāgya, and without pure vairāgya you cannot have this Ātma Jñāna, this pure divine darśana (vision). This does not mean you deny or hate the world, no. Where pure vairāgya exists, a great love awakens. This love cannot be awakened through anything else. At the same time, only the truth, the everlasting, is that Brahman. What is created will be destroyed. Who came will go. What appears will disappear sooner or later. Therefore, "Jagat Mithyā" does not mean it in a simplistic way. Some philosophers do not accept this sentence. From the heart of "Jagat Mithyā," one understands: Jagat (the world) is not Mithyā (unreal/illusory) in an absolute sense. It is true that I am here and you are also here, but after half an hour neither I will be here nor you will be here. Or at midnight, if you get up and come, there is neither webcast nor broadcast, no one is here. That which is constantly changing is unreality; that which is unchangeable and everlasting is reality. So, in the entire universe, all the stars, suns, planets, elements, energy, and incarnations—everything is changing. But one thing does not change: Brahman. That is like the sky. Recording location: Czech Republic, Strilky, Summer seminar

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt, what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

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